Canada Wood Missions and Training Programs Nurturing Leading Wood Building Designers in Korea

Front view of winning entry designed jointly by ids group and Tomoon Architects and Engineers (Image credit: ids and Tomoon)

The Korea Forest Research Institute (KFRI) announced an open design competition to build a new Forest Genetic Resources Research Centre to replace the old one in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province in March 2013. This new research centre will become the largest wood institutional building in Korea showcasing use of wood for large scale buildings.

View from rear (Image credit: ids and Tomoon)

The result of the competition was announced on May 28 and wood structure (except concrete elevator core) of 4 storey above ground and 1 storey basement with total area of 4,580 m2 designed jointly by ids group and Tomoon Architects and Engineers won the competition and another 4 storey wood building designed by Michoo Architects was chosen as the runner-up.

The perspective of the second place winner designed by Michoo Architects (Image credit: Michoo)

All these three design firms – ids, Tomoon and Michoo – are very familiar to Canada Wood. They have all participated in one or more of missions and training programs that were conducted in Canada and were inspired by wood buildings such as Richmond Oval and Whistler Library. And in the case of Michoo, they have been also collaborating with Canada Wood in various activities including development of standard wood frame construction details, workshops, seminars and trainings.

Architects and engineers with ids and Tomoon are planning to visit Vancouver again in July. The deadline for submission of working drawing won’t allow them to wait until October when CWK is planning a developer mission. You guess why they have to be there again!